Conscientiously Study Chairman Mao's Philosophical Works

THE Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the call to the whole Party to conscientiously study Chairman Mao's philosophical works. The press throughout the country recently published many good articles on the study of philosophy written by workers, peasants and soldiers. Using the basic viewpoint of dialectical materialism and historical materialism to solve one or two specific problems, dealing with personal experience and written in simple language, these articles have brought something new to the political and ideological front and stimulated the continued advance of the mass movement for the living study and application of Chairman Mao's philosophical works. Our great leader Chairman Mao long ago issued the call: "Liberate philosophy from the confines of the philosophers’ lecture rooms and textbooks, and ton it into a sharp weapon in the hands of the masses." The workers, peasants and soldiers have themselves grasped dialectical materialism and historical materialism and translated Chairman Mao's call into concrete action, thereby further developing the mass movement for the living study and application of Mao Tsetung Thought since the Ninth Party Congress. This is an important achievement of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Marxism requires that philosophy be integrated with the revolutionary struggle of the masses. Chairman Mao teaches us: "The Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism has two outstanding characteristics. One is its class nature: it openly avows that dialectical materialism is in the service of the proletariat. The other is its practicality: it emphasizes the dependence of theory on practice, emphasizes that theory is based on practice and in turn serves practice." Its class nature and its practicality determine that Marxist philosophy is not the philosophy of the few or academic philosophy, but the philosophy of the masses, the philosophy of struggle and a practical philosophy, and that the masses of workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary cadres must study philosophy and can surely study and apply it well. Dialectical materialism and historical materialism are the world outlook and methodology of the proletariat. They have a highly scientific approach and a thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit, and constitute the most correct and revolutionary theory of knowledge. The new Party Constitution adopted at the Ninth Party Congress clearly stipulates that the Communist Party of China takes Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as the theoretical basis guiding its thinking and that the basic programme of the Communist Party of China is the complete overthrow of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the triumph of socialism over capitalism. Hie ultimate aim of the Party is the realization of communism. Dialectical materialism and historical materialism are the spiritual weapon guiding the proletariat and the revolutionary people in fulfilling this historic task. Only when we keep to the stand of the proletariat and take an active part in the revolutionary practice and do not divorce ourselves from it can we truly master and apply this philosophy. The purpose of our studying Chairman Mao's philosophical works is for further consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, successfully carrying out socialist revolution and socialist construction and remoulding our world outlook in the image of the proletariat. Why is the study of Chairman Mao's philosophical works essential for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat? The fundamental issue in the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat is still the question of political power. The nature of political power is determined by the line followed by those in power. In the final analysis, the struggle between the two lines within the Party is a struggle between the proletarian and bourgeois world outlooks. Chairman Mao points out: "Idealism and mechanical materialism, opportunism and adventurism, are all characterized by the breach between the subjective and the objective, by the separation of knowledge from practice. The Marxist-Leninist theory of knowledge, characterized as it is by scientific social practice, cannot but resolutely oppose these wrong ideologies." Chairman Mao's philosophical thinking is the theoretical basis of his proletarian revolutionary line. Idealism and metaphysics are the ideological basis of all types of "Left" and Right opportunist lines. Only by conscientiously studying and applying Chairman Mao's philosophical works and remoulding our world outlook can we distinguish right from wrong and genuine Marxism from pseudo-Marxism, can we do away with blindness, heighten our consciousness, correctly carry out Coalman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, resist all erroneous tendencies that run counter to this line, and truly accomplish the task of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat in each and every basic unit. Some comrades think that although they have not studied philosophy, they have handled certain matters correctly and practice shows that what they have done conforms to dialectical materialism, so there is no particular need for them to study philosophy. Such a view is one-sided. Chairman Mao points out: "Rational knowledge depends upon perceptual knowledge and perceptual knowledge remains to be developed into rational knowledge — this is the dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge." We must conscientiously study Chairman Mao's philosophical works and raise preliminary perceptual knowledge to the level of the dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge. Only in this way can we foresee the bright future of the movement, correctly analyse the complex process of development and do away with one-sidedness so that we will not lose our bearings at the crucial junctures of clans struggle. Some comrades regard philosophy as something too profound to understand and something which ordinary people cannot study. However, this view has been disproved by the large number of concrete instances of the living study and application of Chairman Mao's philosophical works by workers, peasants and soldiers. Philosophy is generalized from social practice. The workers, peasants and soldiers who take a direct part in the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment have rich practical experience, and the revolutionary cadres also have some experience in work. This is the favourable condition for studying philosophy well. Provided we study philosophy with profound proletarian feelings and closely integrate our study with practice, instead of going from concept to concept and burying ourselves in terminology, it is entirely possible for us to study and apply it well. We must make conscientious efforts in order to study and apply Chairman Mao's philosophical works well. Chairman Mao teaches us: "Idealism and metaphysics are the easiest things in the world, because people can talk as much nonsense as they like without basing it on objective reality or having it tested against reality. Materialism and dialectics, on the other hand, need effort They must be based on and tested by objective reality. Unless one makes the effort, one is liable to slip into idealism and metaphysics." Dialectical materialism is a branch of science. It is not easy to study and apply it well, understand it thoroughly and apply it with ease to solve practical problems in the three great revolutionary movements. It calls for effort. But one can surely grasp philosophy if one makes conscientious efforts. The essence of Chairman Mao's philosophical thinking is revolutionary and critical. Only by studying it in combination with revolutionary mass criticism can one have a profound and thorough understanding of it. The renegade, hidden traitor and scab Liu Shao-chi and Yang Hsien-chen, his agent in philosophical circles, feared that the workers, peasants, soldiers and cadres, once they grasped Chairman Mao's philosophical thinking, would see through their plot to restore capitalism; so they resorted to every trick to obscure the class nature and practicality of Marxist philosophy and spread the notion that "philosophy is something mysterious" to sabotage the mass movement of the workers, peasants and soldiers studying Chairman Mao's philosophical works. We must continue to criticize the fallacy that "philosophy is something mysterious" so as to clear the way further for liberating philosophy. We must criticize the anti-Marxist bourgeois idealism and metaphysics, which are the philosophical basis for Liu Shao-chi's counter-revolutionary revisionist line, and see to it that dialectical materialism and historical materialism take root among the cadres and the masses.It is necessary to strengthen Party leadership in carrying the mass movement for the living study and application of Chairman Mao's philosophical works forward in a sustained and deep-going way. The Party organizations at all levels should take this as the fundamental task in the ideological building of the Party. At present, they should pay special attention to study by the leading bodies at- all levels so as to raise the theoretical level of the whole Party and carry through to the end the great cause of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.